We’ve all seen stories about homeowners’ associations (HOAs) setting themselves up as mini-fiefdoms, and holding people accountable for stuff like “maintaining community standards” and “keeping property values healthy”. The stories are legion, and I can bear witness to some of them myself — the best one being that when we were encouraged by the Plano authorities to start collecting rainwater in large storage barrels (a Good Thing, in semi-desert north Texas), we went off and bought from the city one of said barrels — i.e. the thing was city-approved.
So I installed the blessed thing at the side of the house and attached a drip hose system so that the lawn at the side of the house could get watered. Two weeks later some dickless wonder knocked on my door and said that the barrel was “unsightly” and we had two days to remove it, or face “consequences”. When I asked if any of my neighbors had complained (they hadn’t), he said that their “inspection team” had made the determination.
My response should not be repeated in polite company, but it did contain the words “fuck” and “off”, as well as a few choice words of a personal nature and a warning that any attempt to force “consequences” on me would be met with, shall we say, strong opposition. He left, never to be seen again, and the barrel stayed (it’s still there, some twelve years later).
One could only imagine my response, then, if I lived in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and was faced with an HOA ruling that forbade carrying of guns.
And the local cops feel about the same way as I would:
Breitbart News reported on the HOA’s gun ban May 18, 2026, noting that the St. Lucie Police Department made clear they would not enforce it.
AG Uthmeier contacted the HOA and gave them a deadline to cease enforcement or face legal action.
In a post to X, Uthmeier wrote: “Enforcement of its discriminatory policy against anyone for exercising the constitutional right to keep and bear arms will be met with legal action by my office.”
Needless to say, the HOA has backed down.
And these little gauleiters thought they could get away with this bullshit… in Florida?
HOAs are the places where failed politicians go to swing their dicks. They’re always loaded with people who THINK they’re indispensable to preserving their neighborhoods, look for excuses to exercise power and have inflated senses of self-importance. And they’re always looking for an opportunity to show it off. I would never, EVER, live someplace with an HOA. I live rurally, have for a long time, and couldn’t imagine dealing civilly with any of those a-holes.
Not every HOA is the same. I’m the treasurer of our HOA. But the HOA has only one job. It’s responsible
for the Maintenance of the shared private loop road that connects the 14 houses in our small development together. It basically means we hire a snow driver to plow the road in the winter and every 10 years or so do some pavement maintenance. Nothing else and no problems for the past thirty 30 we’ve lived here.
My parents bought into a small complex with a HOA in 1999. It was still under construction at the time, that’ll become important.
The HOA was good in some ways, horrible in others.
– When severe problems appeared in all the units and the public spaces the HOA led the investigation and legal action that led to the developer/construction company being forced to spend several hundred thousand Euros on repairs and reinforcement of the foundation and walls
– The HOA also replaced the external lights with concrete balls when the residents got tired of drunks headbutting them every night, breaking the glass balls that were originally there
– And then the HOA led the legal fight when some of those drunks had the guts to sue over them getting concussions from slamming their heads into the concrete (which lawsuit of course was thrown out)
– BUT they were also seriously in remiss when it came to standard maintenance work like replacing broken pavement stones, getting the metal fences in common areas painted (coastal area, lots of salt water corrosion if you don’t do that), etc. etc. , but the funds were all being used. They were being used on constantly replacing the gym equipment (the place had a community gym, maintained by the HOA and mainly frequented by the HOA board members).
Exactly….The more the HOA is responsible for fixing and maintaining the more likely it is that funds will be misused and maintenance will be differed in favor of shiny new things. As my local politician explained to me ” There is no press coverage for maintenance work completed.”
My BIL &SIL Live in Port St. Lucie and I hear “Traditions” thinks they are very special, above the hoi polloi in the rest of the area. I’m guessing Tradition is more the new york crowd. Wife and I have our winter palace inland at Okeechobee in an RV park, where the cows and horses outnumber the people and the people for the most part are midwesterners except the Quebeckers, who usually dont talk politics.
Totally irrelevant aside- we had a very personable dog, a rescue from Lebanon who responded to French when he heard it. I asked several of my neighbors to speak french to him. When I’d walk him I’d hear “hey tripod”(he was 3 legged), “hi bobby” or “ bon jour bo-bee”